1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hearing aid devices and, more particularly, to power management for hearing aid devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hearing aids amplify sounds for hearing impaired users. Hearing aids are small scale portable electronic devices that operate under battery power. Consequently, battery life is an important criteria for hearing aids.
Hearing aids have three major components that consume power: microphone(s), electronic integrated circuit (IC), and receiver. Typical hearing aid microphones drain about 20 xcexcA current or higher when having a built-in amplifier. The most popular receiver is class-D amplifier receiver (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,087), which drains about 100 to 300 xcexcA, depending on brand and power output. Hearing aid manufactures typically buy microphones and receivers from companies who are more specialized in designing and manufacturing acoustical-electrical transducers. As a result, hearing aid manufactures normally cannot control power consumption of the microphones and receivers. However hearing aid manufacturers are able to reduce the power consumption of the electronic integrated circuit (IC), which varies greatly among the manufacturers.
Conventionally, power consumption of the electronic integrated circuit has been achieved through designing the circuitry with architectures that consume less power, using the most advanced IC process technology (e.g., 0.13 microns currently), and/or simplifying sound processing algorithms. One example of the simplifying is to use a lower precision in the sound processing algorithm which estimates sound energy.
Unfortunately, even with these conventional power saving design choices, hearing aids still consume significant amounts of power and thus do not enjoy prolonged battery life. Thus, there is a need for improved approaches to reduce power consumption in hearing aids.
Broadly speaking, the invention relates to improved approaches to reducing power consumption in hearing aids. According to one aspect of the invention, hearing aids (namely, one or more components thereof) are able to be operated in different operational modesxe2x80x94at least one of which is a power saving mode. According to another aspect of the invention, intelligent switching between the operational modes is performed to reduce power consumption when appropriate.
The invention can be implemented in numerous ways including as a method, system, apparatus, device, and computer readable medium. Several embodiments of the invention are discussed below.
As a method for managing power consumption of a hearing aid device, one embodiment of the invention includes at least the acts of: obtaining a sound identification for a sound signal picked-up by the hearing aid device; determining whether sound to be processed is present based on the sound identification for the sound signal; and placing the hearing aid device in a reduced power mode when the said determining determines that no significant sound to be processed is present.
As a method for managing power consumption of a hearing aid device, another embodiment of the invention includes at least the acts of: monitoring at least one signal characteristic for a sound signal picked-up by the hearing aid device; and switching between a normal power mode and a reduced power mode for the hearing aid device in accordance with the at least one signal characteristic for the sound signal.
As a hearing aid device, one embodiment of the invention includes at least: a microphone for picking up a sound signal, signal processing circuitry operatively connected to said microphone, a mode control circuit operatively connected to said signal processing circuitry, and an output device. The signal processing circuitry operates to process the sound signal to produce a modified sound signal. The signal processing circuitry also operates in a normal mode or a reduced power mode. The mode control circuit controls whether the signal processing circuitry operates in the normal mode or the reduced power mode. The output device produces an output sound in accordance with the modified sound signal.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the invention.